It is known that in medicine or surgery, sterile containers are used which commonly can be loaded with surgical instruments designated for sterilization. During the sterilization process the instruments remain in the sterile container and are heated in it with a predetermined temperature so strongly and for so long that any micro-organisms and any of their spores contained on the surgical instruments are killed. In order to assure and inform a user, for example the staff who would like to use the sterile instruments in the operating room, that the instruments have indeed undergone a sterilization process and the use of said instruments on a patient is unproblematic with regards to a risk of infection, different embodiments of sterile displays for sterile containers have already been suggested in the prior art.
For example an exclusively manually actuatable sterile display in the form of a seal for a sterile container is known from DE 33 16 141 A1. The seal, which may only be accessed by a predetermined group of personnel, displays in its intact state attached to the sterile container that sterilized objects, in particular surgical instruments, are in the sterile container. It is disadvantageous in the case of this type of sterile display that the seal must be manually attached after the sterilization process, tested for integrity, and removed again before opening of the sterile container, or at least destroyed. The sterilization process must also be precisely monitored for a reliable evaluation of the sterility, due to the manual attaching of the seal.
Another type of sterile display is for example known from EP 0 412 571 B1. A sterile display for a sterile container is described therein, said sterile display including a display element for the display of a performed sterilization of the contents of the sterile container. For this purpose the display element comprises a spring made from a shape memory alloy, which makes available a spring load only upon exceeding a predetermined temperature, preferably the sterilization temperature. By means of the suddenly applied spring load, a locking member is transferred to a closed position in which it is visible that a sterilization has taken place. It is disadvantageous that for the sterile display a comparatively cost-intensive spring made from a shape memory alloy is used. It is further disadvantageous that such a spring cannot be brought as often as necessary into its stressed shape-memory position, but rather it is subject to restrictions with respect to its lifetime and thereby also with respect to the possible sterilization processes of the sterile container. Finally the sterile display of EP 0 412 571 B1 must be manually put back in its open position upon opening of the sterile container.